


Haze and Discovery

by Kailela



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Alternate Universe, Baby Cloud, Child Cloud, Childhood Friends, Even I don't know how this will turn out in the end, M/M, Mako Glow, Multi, Nibel Wolves, Nibelheim, perspective changes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-13
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-10-03 23:57:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10261982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kailela/pseuds/Kailela
Summary: On a stormy Tuesday high in the frigid mountains of Nibelheim, a woman's cries of pain could be heard ringing through the air. Each scream was prolific and powerful, expelling exorbitant emotion and stress.Lightning streaked the sky above her roof taking all of the noise with it into the air. It was silent for only a moment.Cries of a newborn pierced the sky. Just born into the world, he was all tiny limbs, soft snowy-white skin, and illuminated electric blue eyes.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys Kailela here, this is my first story and I just wanted to use this to explore some of my favorite tropes in FFVII fanfiction. Eventually Cloud will grow to a reasonable age to have relationships, but that will be a bit off. I just wanted to explore a new take on his character and put some of my moody self-depreciating humor into something that many of you can relate to.  
>   
> If you have any suggestions they would be appreciated as I know my writing is not the most concise or clear.  
>   
> Feel free to contact me on my tumblr @kailelaa  
>   
> Enjoy!

He was crying again.  
  
Oh, what to do with him, she thought to herself as she rose from the consuming comfort of her quilted bed. What to do indeed.  
  
One look at the moonlit crib was all she needed to see the tears flowing from her baby boy’s blue eyes. His fat cheeks, redder than usual, stood in stark and angry opposition to his normally snowy pale complexion. It was almost as if he was under the spell of the nasty virus that had been wreaking havoc throughout the small town.  
  
Awh, my sweet baby storm cloud, did you finally get sick. She slid her hands under the plush comfort of his onesie to bring him close to her bosom where he was rocked from side to side in a slow meditative rhythm.  
  
The young mother seriously doubted that.  
  
Unlike the many other children in their freezing, cruel town, her little one had yet to catch even a bit of a cold. Left and right, babies were brought into her home to be treated for everything under the sun, even for the figments of imagination that new overzealous parents projected onto their small ones. She knew that her little cloud was full of the strength that would allow him to break boundaries and inspire change.  
  
As she looked past her oily blonde bangs at the snow that floated to the ground like a dance of beautiful glitter, she barely noticed the slowed breathing of the child. Their heartbeats had synchronized and the moment of peace she had been seeking was reached.  
  
She absently stroked the smooth skin of her baby, deep in thought.  
  
Oh, what the new year will bring to us baby Cloud.  
  
As her eyes started to droop, she recognized that it was time for her to get some quality rest similar to that of the small creature in her hands. The mother leaned her head down to give a kiss to his forehead. She set him back in the wooden crib, gate up.  
  
This wasn’t the first time she had been woken by her child’s crying. Usually he is so quiet, he always is content with just watching me in peace, so I wonder what is plaguing my little boys mind when his head hits the pillow?  
  
She questioned this out of character behavior as she lit a bundle of cedar twigs she kept at her bedside. The mother hoped that the aroma would help the child sleep and protect him from the spirits that might be the cause of his nightmares.  
  
After a minute, the incense was blown out and she fell back onto the one place where she got to breathe, to emote. The combination of the heady smell of the cedar and the fatigue of a long day caring for her ill patients put her to bed almost immediately.  
  
Little did she know that this wouldn’t be the last time she was grasping at her baby, trying to comfort him from the reaches of his mind. There were things that she would never understand because she couldn’t see them, but also these things were those that she knew would make her baby a living legacy. 

  


\-------------------

  


“Doctor Strife -- if you don’t mind me asking, where is Cloud?” Tifa’s small and curious voice rose to her ears, but really didn’t get passed on to her brain.  
  
Mama Strife was too busy thinking about what had happened yesterday right outside of her own home to formulate an answer to the little ones’ question. Yesterday, around midday, when she took a quick break from her clinical duties for lunch, she looked out of her back window to see her pudgy four-year-old son pretending to be a great warrior with a stick, board, and his imagination out in the tall grass and wildflowers.  
  
He was a fast learner, so she was comfortable with him expanding his horizons and being out alone, to a point. The small child had learned how to walk early on, at 7 months and was spouting words by 16 months. She was proud of her red nosed little ray of sunshine, and dreamed about the potential the young one would have. She gazed out at her little sword swinger, he would make something out of himself, easily.  
  
All the sudden, the blonde woman’s plate fell, smashing into a million pieces and the boy halted in his ministrations.  
  
All four Strife eyes were trained on the baby Nibel wolf that had just crashed through the blackberry bushes on the border of the forest and her backyard. Even as a baby, the creature was easily three times the size of her tiny son and looked at him like he would be his next meal.  
  
She heard the growl from inside the paper-thin walls of the house and jumped up with a start. She had no clue what to do with herself. She was a doctor, meant to save lives not take them. Rushing to the door, she was frozen in place as the wolf got right up in the baby blondes face.  
  
Little Cloud stayed stock still, eyes looking straight ahead and tiny fingers clenched around his makeshift weapon.  
  
He looked like more than just a boy playing pretend any more. He, only aged four years, looked like the SOLDIERS she saw on the television preparing for a battle, stone cold face and intimidating focus.  
  
Then, CRACK!  
  
In an instant, the wolf was down on his belly, knocked back about a foot, in just about as much shock as the mother standing at the door with her mouth hung wide open clutching at her heart.  
  
Her baby’s eyes flashed with unnatural light and the Nibel wolf took that as his sign to retreat. He skidded back through the bushes clumsily checking behind his back every few seconds to make sure that the little hell raiser wasn’t following him anymore.  
  
Mama Strife ran to her child and crashed to her knees. “Cloud, sweet baby Cloud. I’m sorry I couldn’t help. Mama was stuck, but mama is also so proud of you for protecting yourself.” Tears ran down her face and the child locked his hands behind her neck.  
  
“I’m sorry mama” the small voice said, no lingering traces of fear in the sweet high notes.  
  
“Don’t be sorry baby. It’s mama’s turn to say sorry. She should have protected you more from all of the big bad monsters out there in the world.” She rose to her feet, the baby boy and her still clinging to one another. She rocked him in her arms and retreated to the warmth of the small home. Their heartbeats synchronized once again, calming them down from the traumatizing experience.  
  
She set the boy down on the couch, and as if he was a machine, he powered down. The faint glow leaked away from his eyes as they began to droop and his small scratched up hands loosened their grip on their rough and battle worn sword.  
  
Her vision began to sway from left to right when she heard, “Mrs. Strife. Hello, Mrs. Strife”. Tifa’s voice and small hands grasping at her crisp white uniform woke her from her reverie.  
  
She shook her head like it would get rid of the bad memories and fear she felt yesterday, “Yes Tifa darling? I am so sorry that I got distracted that easily.” She made her hands busy by preparing the thermometer that she needed to give to the small girl.  
  
“It’s all right. My daddy told me not to bother him when he looked like that, but you just looked like you needed some help.”  
  
“Why thank you darling. You helped me out of a pickle”, she said as she brushed her slim fingers though the little girl’s thick chocolate brown hair.  
  
She gave the doctor a big and bright smile.  
  
There is no way that this ray of sunshine is sick. Why the mayor kept sending her down when nothing was wrong with her was beyond her responsibility. He paid her well and often to take care of his daughter, so she never brought it to his attention.  
  
Oh well. She placed the thermometer in the little girl’s mouth and decided to actually answer her inquiry.  
  
“Tifa, Cloud is upstairs in his room playing with his puzzles. I’ll take you upstairs when we are done so that the two of you can have a playdate. Is that okay?” she said tucking a lock of thick hair behind delicate ears.  
  
Tifa shook her head vigorously up and down, her brown eyes getting wide with the excitement of seeing her best friend.  
  
“Don’t do that too much or the thermometer will fall out and you will have to take it again”. Doctor Strife gave Tifa one of her mama wolf patented looks, and Tifa immediately stopped and placed her hands in her lap, the picture of perfect behavior.  
  
She was glad that Tifa and her boy Cloud were best friends. She talked enough for the both of them, but Cloud always looked genuinely happy when Tifa was around. He looked at her like they weren’t just four years old, more like they had been best friends for years and had made it through some hard times together.  
  
Speaking of little stormy.  
  
The creak of the stairs rung loud though the empty house. She knew her baby was walking down to the first floor, brought down by the rambunctious girl that is Tifa Lockhart.  
  
“Cloud!” said girl yelled aloud, throwing her hands up to the sky. Thermometer falling out of her mouth, long forgotten.  
  
She jumped to her feet and waddled over to her best friend in the whole world. As they met in an adorably clumsy four-year-old embrace, Mama Strife chuckled to herself and picked the thermometer up off the floor. Tifa wasn’t sick and despite all the odd things happening around her, Cloud was safe.  
  
The blonde woman sent the two off to go play and turned back around to look out of her back-kitchen window. She was exasperated, bags heavy under her eyes.  
  
What is so special about him? What does the future have in store for us? Gaia, What?

  


\----------------

  


Nibelheim was the kind of town that any average person would never have dreams of living in. Everyone in this small and sleepy town desired to get out and explore the temperate beauty of Costa del Sol or the excited bustle of the capitol, Midgar. Nobody stayed here out of want, it was always out of necessity, so far removed that they used it as an escape from a bad or hectic past.  
  
Cloud was no exception to this rule, even at age twelve, he and his best friend focused a majority of their long talks on leaving the snowy, high altitude lands of Nibelheim. It’s not that nothing exciting ever happened in the city -that was definitely a lie with all the crazy animals that lived nearby and the local cultural lore that inspired festivals and dances- but Cloud felt that everything here was just… so predictable.  
  
Marriages were arranged early on by worried and overbearing parents and young husbands and wives were expected to have kids young and die early from the harsh winters and lack of medical equipment and mechanisms.  
  
This is not the life that Cloud had ever desired. Deep inside, he just felt like he was a different person, that he was meant for much more than just breeding material and mortality statistics.  
  
“Hurry up Cloud! You are falling behind again” Tifa shouted playfully at him from over her shoulder, hands and eyes focused on their current task of scaling the steep mountain face. “Always have your head up in the clouds” she said and looked back at him with a sly wink.  
  
“Wow you’re hilarious Teef. I really appreciate your humor at a time like this” Cloud made sure to lay the sarcasm on thick, real thick. He didn’t understand why people thought that slapstick humor and puns involving his name were hilarious. They just aren’t. Hmph. He decided to take out his renewed frustrations by clawing into the ground.  
  
Tifa gave a chuckle that dislodged a few rocks down the face that Cloud then had to dodge, and then they continued forward in their typical companionable silence.  
  
After several moments, he heard Tifa’s shrill cry of “Cloud!! Get your ass up here, you’re so slow”, she made sure to drag out each syllable in her special patented Tifa quality dramatic tone.  
  
“Calm yourself down woman, I’m nearly there” he took a few more steps up the rock face and reached for Tifa’s hand to help pull himself to the top. “I don’t even know why you dragged me up here, you should be happy that I am not kicking and screaming now.”  
  
Once he rested his feet on level ground and took a look at his surroundings he was hit with a severe case of vertigo.  
  
Cloud, born a mountain boy was not getting sick from their height in the sky or the thinning of the air around him, but rather he was struck by the familiarity of the location. He tried to look back through his twelve years of memory to see if perhaps his mother took him here to pick out some herbs for medicines, or if somehow, he got here on one of the adventures of his youth, nothing came up.  
  
This is so strange, he thought to himself. I have a bad feeling about this place.  
  
The thick foliage that arose in a Nibelheim summer was all around them, making it hard to see the electric blue sky. The dirt looked just like the same stuff that covered the entirety of the Nibel valley and his best friend looked like she was in peak physical health. He just had no clue what this feeling bubbling up in the pit of his stomach was. All he knew was that he certainly didn’t like it.  
  
Tifa gave him a side glance showing the subtle tones of concern she had for her friend while he decided to retreat back into his shell.  
  
“Cloud are you feeling fine because we can take a break or go back to town if you aren’t feeling up to it”  
  
Cloud automatically noticed the concern in his best friend’s voice, but also saw the subtle challenge she threw at him. The undertones of her voice and the cocked hip, hand on top, screamed ‘I dare you’ to Clouds brain.  
  
Man, Tifa already knew all his weaknesses. From the time when he was just a small boy sitting in his kindergarten class he was always picked on, but never just took the insults and punches without throwing one back himself. He had always been a feisty little guy, his peers noticing a fire behind his eyes when he got into the rush of things.  
  
He tried to break himself out of his reverie before he could turn down some dark back alleys filled with bad memories, but right before he could truly look into the bright brown eyes in front of him he collapsed as he was assaulted with noises and flashing colors.  
  
Images blurred together, moving so fast he couldn’t focus on any one thing long enough to make it out. The noises didn’t aid his searching mind either, everything grated on his senses and nothing was clear to him.  
  
These assaults of the mind had been growing increasingly frequent, always gnawing at his head, adding more pressure to his already packed skull. This by far was one of his worst experiences.  
  
He was in fetal position, covered in Nibelheim dust, eyes closed and hands creating muffs over his ears.  
  
Then, as if someone had taken the sharpest Nibelheim icepick from the backyard of the mayor and smashed it against the base of his skull he flung his limbs away from his torso with violent force, not even noticing that he had just smacked Tifa down to the ground.  
  
He let out a guttural scream, one that would make even the Nibel dragons return to their nests as clear, white light blanketed his vision before fading back to darkness.  
  
The blonde felt like he had blacked out for at least a handful of minutes before he was standing back on the mountain side with Tifa.  
  
She gave him a wide smile before taking his hand in hers.  
  
Tifa led the way with more leadership than the president of Shinra Electric would ever be able to muster in a lifetime, to the edge of the cliff where the rocky face of the mountain broke off to the cloudy blue and purple horizon.  
  
We should get going, it looks like a storm is coming our way, Cloud noted absentmindedly amidst the pounding force in his head.  
  
While he was too busy taking in the view of the mountains cutting up the perfection of a cloudy sunset, Tifa yanked his arm over to the side. His eyes eventually were torn away from the beauty surrounding him to look at the object of Tifa’s fixation.  
  
Right in front of him was a bridge formed from old, fraying ropes and dilapidated shingles of wood. It stood over a thousand feet above the ground connecting the two mountains to one another. It looked at peace, undisturbed in the snowy landscape, but he knew that with Tifa here, there was no way that it would remain that way for too much longer.  
  
Once glance at the girl in question and he recognized the most mischievous look on her face, Cloud’s stomach clenched in what he thought was anticipation.  
  
“Tifa, I don’t know what you think you are doing, but I don’t like the looks of this. It looks like it will tumble to the ground at any second. I really have no desire to break another bone like what happened last time. I really just want to make I back home in one piece especially after that fit I just had a few minutes ago.”  
  
It seemed as if the female had heard none of his concerns, nothing caught in her brain.  
  
She was already at the bridge, having sidled up to it during his monologue. One booted foot was poised over the first step, already several feet higher than Cloud’s desired comfort level from the ground.  
  
“Come on Teef. Let’s just go” he tried to plead with her. “We can go back down to town and I will tell everyone that you crossed the bridge. You don’t actually have to do it”  
  
His words still appeared to not affect her movements, as if the idea of the bridge had taken root in her brain and was now pulling the strings in her mind like she was nothing more than a mindless puppet. Said puppet was already four steps into the process of crossing the bridge.  
  
She’ll be fine. She is always fine. Cloud tried to convince himself that Tifa was safe, that she would make it across the bridge and look back at him from a new mountainside with the same smile she started with, but who was he kidding. He knew something bad was about to go down he knew it before the bridge was even in his view.  
  
As soon as that thought even dared to cross his mind, his ears picked up the subtle stretching of dry fibers. Before his small, gangly legs could muster up the speed to move to the ropes, SNAP!  
  
The bridge cracked, birds miles away took to the sky, and Tifa’s body fell to the ground, still looking like a lifeless puppet.  
  
Falling to his knees right at the edge of the rock face, his hands being scraped to the bone from the gravel underneath, he watched as his friend’s usually graceful and limber body smacked against every branch in a pine tree with a sickening thud and crack. He vomited over the edge, body letting everything out, burning himself from the inside-out.  
  
Why did I let this happen?  
  
As Cloud’s head lolled backwards, his vision began to blur at the edges.  
  
Stress was getting to him, he had no clue what he would tell the townspeople, her family, her dad. Tifa’s father already hatted him, there would be no way he would be allowed to stay in town after an incident like that. He was done.  
  
Hands clawed at his face, any open skin left uncovered by the multitude of scarves and jackets leaving red welts in the wake of his own sharpened claws.  
  
Oh, why Tifa? Why wasn’t it me? Why would it not be me?  
  
As the fear and self-pity took root in his mind, the ice pick returned with a vengeance to smack him back to reality, whatever that was.  
  
He fought his way back out from the darkness that had swallowed him to see the same offending bridge completely intact just feet in front of his face. Cloud let out a yelp of surprise, eyebrows knit up in confusion.  
Tifa, who had been cradling his head mere seconds ago, asked him if he was all right.  
  
He looked at her like she was a mirage in a desert where he had had nothing to drink in years. He basked in her glorious features and liveliness, grasping her in an embrace and crying into the crook of her neck.  
She patted him on the back with as much awkwardness as someone randomly grabbed off the streets.  
  
“Cloud are you all right?” She asked, voice much smaller than he had ever heard it be.  
  
He gasped when her voice reached his ears, clutching her tighter in his arms to make sure that this version of his best friend was actually real.  
  
Her voice reached his ears once more, “Cloud, let’s just go back home. We can do this another day.”  
  
He nodded his head and collected himself.  
  
“Let’s mosey Teef” he said with a light chuckle. He knew that that always made her laugh.  
  
She responded back with a laugh of her own and began climbing back down the rock face they came up on. Before he retreated to the warmth of his home, he gave a dirty look to the rickety old rope bridge, still wondering what the hell had just happened to him and what would have happened had he let Tifa cross that path.  
  
Only three weeks later, after hearing the regaling of Tifa’s story of crossing the old rope bridge at the top of the mountain over and over between classes and at lunch, he heard the whispering of his neighbors. Returning home early from school, excused by the nurse for a terrible migraine, he overheard two old women poised with sun hats and watering cans around the few plants that can grow in the Nibel weather. Certainly, they prepared more for the latest gossip than the next harvest.  
  
“June, I heard that the Jameson kid right down the street was found dead this morning.”  
  
“Yes dearie. I also heard that. It’s absolutely tragic. Supposedly he was out adventuring, doing the silly, controversial things that boys his age normally do, when he came across the old rope bridge to one of the mako caverns. He took a few steps out, then the thing snapped out from underneath his legs.”  
  
“Poor thing”  
  
“Indeed, I can’t imagine what his mother is going through at this moment. His father is still down in the mines so I doubt the news has even made it to him yet.”  
  
More was said between the two elderly women, but Cloud could no longer hear it from his crouched position with hands poised over his ears. Shock had already set in, and his mind was running. ‘What ifs’ and ‘What the hells’ were crossing his mind at a mile a minute. He was completely in overload.  
  
He saw his mother exit their cottage, laundry basket in her hands, ready to put the linens out to dry in the crisp air. She took one sweeping glance across her domain only to spot her small baby storm cloud in the midst of a panic attack.  
  
The basket fell, spilling fresh, clean clothing across the rough lawn.  
  
Her gasp echoed out across the mountain tops.  
  
Her shoe fell, forgotten to the ground as she rushed with arms outstretched to his side to offer some sort of comfort to his poor damaged soul.

  


\---------------

  


Only two years later, did Cloud even start to make sense out of what had happened at age twelve on that mountainside with Tifa.  
  
He knew something had been going on in his mind ever since he was a child, but was sure that this mission he left on would be give him all the answers he needed.  
  
He gathered up a few bottles of water, a snack or two, as well as his handy pocketknife, and wrapped them with care in his little worn out rucksack. To the untrained eye, Cloud looked like he was about to run away from home, but clear to the few people in the town that truly knew him, they understood that Cloud was going on an adventure. The same kind of voyage he used to go on years ago with Tifa.  
  
At age fourteen, Cloud was just starting to make sense of somethings, but at the same time questions were sprouting up that he just was not sure about.

  



End file.
